Along with the ornament shots on the indoor breakfast table, I had a bar set up outside on the patio. Out of the photo is an ice chest filled with beer and flavored sparkling waters.

To the left, you can see a large basket tub filled with sparkling wine, non-alcoholic sparkling beverages, and wine. I love to add greens to the tub., such an easy and festive touch to every winter party.

A large glass dispenser filled with water, infused with lemon and cucumber slices. Making water available this way is not only more visually pleasing but reduces plastic.

Lisa made these fluffy triangles of goodness. The adjustment I’m going to make to these is the exact opposite of the adjustment I made to the recipe, also using puff pastry, that Kim made in the last post. For Kim’s puff pastry, I adjusted the recipe to make half as many because they were too small and for this recipe, we’re going to make twice as many because these were honestly, too big for an appetizer party. Perfect size for a lunch dish though, if you want to make the original recipe and go that route.

Photographer, Mary, chose to make these quick and easy goat cheese stuffed dates. I found a couple of other photos that Mary shared with me of the lovely party-goers. Those are included here. Mary, Thank You! <3

If you or your guests are not big fans of goat cheese, use half goat cheese and half cream cheese to tone down the tangy taste. Personally, I’m all the way Team Goat Cheese!

Amy made these Italian Antipasto Squares and they were the biggest hit of all the appetizers. Everyone thought that the bread layer was focaccia, but no, just simple crescent roll dough. I will be making them again and again!

We’re about one-third of the way through with the appetizer recipes, so how about a cute beverage idea for your next holiday gathering?

By far the most popular part of the annual party was this setup of desserts and shots. Let’s zoom in…

The Lighted Christmas trees with Ornament Shots were the bomb! I had purchased the round ornament shot glasses last year in the Target Dollar Spot but had yet to use them. Then Marissa sent me the TikTok idea of hanging them on these simple lighted trees. It’s a winner!

I’ve linked the trees and shot ornaments below. As for the shots themselves, do whatever you’d like. The most popular at our party was the Rum Chata & Fireball shot, which tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So good! I also made Bailey’s Irish Cream shots, Cranberry-Tequila shots, and Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey shots.

On Saturday I helped my dear friend and former neighbor, Amy Kilpatrick (of Amy’s Famous Taco Soup fame) with a surprise 50th birthday party for her husband, Scott. Amy and Scott are high school sweethearts. They became girlfriend and boyfriend when they were 15 or 16 years old and turned 50 within a week of each other. Amy’s birthday was last Thursday and Scott’s is this coming Thursday.

I remember attending their joint 40th birthday party at Scott’s parent’s house. Amy decided to throw Scott a surprise party and asked for my help. She told Scott she would be at a conference all day on Saturday. Their two boys, Tim & Will, who attend UofA in Tucson, came home for the weekend to celebrate with their parents. Tim and Will’s job was to keep their dad occupied, yet available for party time. It wasn’t too hard since March Madness is in full swing. The guys just hung out all day, watching games and enjoying time together.

Amy ordered a custom installation of Harmony Boards for the party. I already had an order for the afternoon, so I had 2 other boards to make and deliver, a total of 8 boards for the day. That’s a BIG day for Harmony Boards! Since all that was going on, there was no way Amy would be able to cook the dinner portion of the party at my house, so she enlisted her mom, stepmother, and mother-in-law to do all that. They each prepared a brisket and the additional sides and such.

The theme of the party was Pickle Ball. Scott is big into it, if you don’t know what it is, check this out, it’s the hot new sport. Amy went all out with the theme and the decorations were so cute and fun.

We figured out the perfect way to get Scott to the party. He and the boys have always been wonderful about helping me when I need extra muscle. When I lived in Equestrian Manor they lived only a block away. I’d call them for help every now and again, such as when a wind storm was about to blow down a new tree in my yard and I was holding on to it for dear life. I had my cell phone, called Amy and she sent the boys over to help me tie it to one of the bigger trees to keep it from blowing down. Or when I needed to move furniture, Scott and the boys were always willing to lend the muscle.

I created a couple of signature cocktails and a mocktail for the Harmony Boards Launch Party last week.

photo credit: Robert Westerman

This first recipe was the big hit of the night. You’ll know why when you see the ingredient list:

• Fresh lemon juice – check.
• Sugared rims – check.
• Fresh ginger – check.
• Everyone’s favorite alcohol, Vodka – check!

Of course, not everything can go off without a hitch. I’d made the Ginger-Lemonade and other components for the cocktails at home earlier in the week. Then Kim and I transported and prepped everything at the venue on Tuesday, the day before the party.

(I should stop here to say that the venue is one of the charming Airbnb that Kim’s son and daughter-in-law, Cody and Chanté, operate. Cody and his Chisel Built company do the remodel and Chanté does the interior design. You can visit this home, known as the Zona Rosa, and their other vacation rentals at Chisel Built Stays.)

Late Tuesday night, around midnight, I woke up from deep sleep to remember that the lemonade had to be poured onto sheet pans and frozen. Oops!

photo credit: Robert Westerman

I was so concerned that I’d forget in the morning, that I got up and put the sheet pans in my car. It wasn’t until I arrived at the house, pans in hand, that I realized they would not fit in the freezer. Now what?

I poured the lemonade into a couple of dozen small plastic cocktail cups and put them in the freezer. I knew I wasn’t going to get the same easy effect as I’d get by spreading it on sheet pans, where the frozen slushy-like mixture could be simply scraped off into a pitcher. I was going to get frozen lemon cubes. But, in a pinch, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do!

photo credit: Robert Westerman

When it came time to mix up the cocktails, a few of the cups were still slushy in texture, which is what we needed. But most were rock hard. Poor Kim took on the task of breaking and mashing those lemon ice cups down. It all worked out in the end – everyone raved.  Thanks, Kim!

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… to the Harmony Boards Launch Party!!!

Yup, it’s official and it’s finally happening. Harmony Boards has hit the ground running. We have already delivered several boards and have several more on the calendar.

If you’re local, we’d love to see you at our Launch Party, a week from today. Be sure to RSVP to the email in the invite or you can do so by leaving us a comment here.

Linda Hopkins & Kim Howard invite you and a guest

to the Launch Party of their new venture

Harmony Boards

Wednesday, October 3

at the oh so chic

Zona Rosa Residence

7819 E. Culver St.

Scottsdale, AZ 85257

Signature Cocktails & Wine Bar 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Please RSVP by Monday, October 1

to [email protected]

*Each attendee who has RSVP’d is entered into a drawing to win a free

Harmony Board

In the meantime, please visit us at AZHarmonyBoards.com

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Happy Memorial Day! I hope you and your loved ones are spending a relaxing and reflective weekend together.

Aw, finally! The day has arrived, I am posting the last recipe from my Friday the 13th Dinner Party. I’m just happy I was able to squeak it in before the first of June! The lucky element in this final recipe is the coconut.

The tradition/superstition is that eating any round fruit on New Year’s brings luck and good fortune. In the Philippines, 13 is considered a lucky number so the custom calls for eating 13 round fruits. Whereas, in Europe and the States, we eat 12, which represents the months in a year. In both cases, their coin-like shape and their sweetness are what bring luck.

This is similar to the earlier mentioned belief that when you eat 12 grapes at midnight of New Year, it will bring you wealth and more luck for the next 12 months of the coming year.

A few pointers before we get to the recipe:

To hull the strawberries, you can use a paring knife, a strawberry huller (similar to little tweezers), or a straw. I’m all about the straw method. It’s quick and fun.

I bought the mold for the ice pops HERE on Amazon.

The sticks tend to float up when the molds are filled. I fixed that by placing the empty box the mold came in on top while the pops were in the freezer. Problem solved.

To store the frozen pops; lay down or stand up in a tight-sealing container with pieces of parchment paper in-between each pop.

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This was the main dessert for the Friday the 13th Dinner Party.

The frosting is what makes this cake special and bananas are the unlucky ingredient.

It’s crazy how many “explanations” there are for the superstition that bananas on boats bring bad luck, illness, and bad fishing. Here are but a few from Snopes.com:

• When top-heavy ships of earlier eras would sink, precious little other than the bananas they’d carried would be found floating on the surface, thereby leaving some to conclude conveyance of the fruit itself had led to these naval mishaps.
• Spiders, snakes, and other poisonous vermin living among bananas carried in the hold would, on long haul trips, expand their horizons by infesting other parts of the ship.
• Because the speediest sailing ships were used to get bananas to their destinations before they could spoil, those attempting to fish from them never caught anything while trolling.
• Fisherman became ill after eating the fruit.
• Other fruits would spoil more quickly when bananas were being shipped along with them, causing folks to deem bananas “bad luck.” (Technically, it wouldn’t have been ill fate that resulted in the spoilage of other foodstuffs, but instead, the ethylene gas emitted by bananas as they ripen.)
• Crew member injured by slipping on discarded banana peels.
• Banana oil rubs off onto the hands of a fisherman, thereby “spooking” the fish.

Makes me wonder if Banana Boat sunscreen was named as an ode to the superstition. Anyhow, this cake was lucky for me because it turned out perfectly. One thing though, I think it tastes better the day after it is baked.

*** Note: The cake was the first of the recipes I made for the party, so don’t mind me, I thought I was being cute and clever when I placed lucky and unlucky “charms” in the photos as I made the cake. 🙂

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